When Michael Vick found a new employer, the battleground was immediately marked off for the inevitable battle between animal rights protesters and whoever they decide to get mad at. The battleground will be Philadelphia, and to a lesser extent, the eight cities the Eagles will briefly visit over the course of the season.

There will be different groups conducting different protests for different reasons, and they'll all take different approaches. Some will be more inflammatory and destructive than others. Some people are mad as hell that Vick is back in the NFL, and they want to make someone's life miserable because of it.

My advice to those people, and anyone who feels the need to protest Michael Vick's(notes) presence in the NFL, is this: Don't do it that way. Don't take an attacking, vengeful, scorched-earth approach to this. For one thing, it's not going to work, and for another, it's not where your focus should be.

There's absolutely nothing you can do that's going to make Eagles fans turn against the Eagles. That's not happening. Maybe a few fringe fans fall by the wayside with the Vick signing, but anyone with more than a passing interest in the team -- and I'm speaking of the tens of thousands of people who eagerly pay for overpriced tickets, and the tens of thousands more who would if there were more tickets available -- aren't going anywhere, for any reason. If you're not a huge football fan, please take my word for this: The NFL has a grip on people like you cannot believe. For a great many people, the NFL is right up there with air, food, water and shelter.

No matter what you do, The Linc is going to be filled every Sunday. Any attempt at a boycott will be laughably futile. That's a guarantee. The only things that make people stop coming to football games are losing streaks. Dog murder will not have nearly the impact on the gate as the won/loss record. I'm not condoning it. I'm just letting you know.

So don't make this a battle against people who love the Eagles and will tolerate Vick's presence. Again, you're not going to win that battle, and more importantly, those people aren't the enemy. They don't have anything to do with the real goal here (or what should be the real goal), which is drawing attention to dogfighting and doing our best to eliminate it in the future.

That's what's important, isn't it? That we curb the practice of dogfighting?

Put your focus there. You can try to lead boycotts, you can yell and scream at Vick, you can try to make fans feel bad about following the Eagles and you can be as vindictive as you want. But how does that help? Does that bring any dogs back to life? Does it do anything but cause conflict between people?

Put your focus on the future and try to accomplish something that can save dog lives for years to come. The biggest advantage you have here is that your message is 100% in the right: Dogfighting is wrong, criminal, evil and intolerable. I think you'll find that the overwhelming majority of football fans -- even Michael Vick fans -- agree with you.

By all means, use Michael Vick to draw attention to your cause. Make an anti-dogfighting message Vick's major contribution to the world for the rest of his life, whether he wants it to be or not. Vick, no matter where he goes or what he does, is going to be a lightning rod for attention. Jump on that.

Take that attention, and use it to reach young people who might find themselves right now in same situation where Vick was when he was a kid: in an environment that tolerates dogfighting.

If you take that attention, though, and use it to rail against people who have given Michael Vick a second chance, or people who don't agree that Vick should never play football again, you're wasting it. That doesn't do anyone any good. The future of Michael Vick the football player shouldn't be of the slightest interest to you.

What's truly important are the lives and health of any dogs who might be looking at a future of fighting one another. Put your focus on the kids who are susceptible to getting caught up in it.

That's what Michael Vick's doing. Don't let him do it better than you.

Elsewhere on the Yahoo! Sports Blogs:
• Surprise: Michael Vick signs deal with Philadelphia Eagles
• Jen Utley isn't afraid to hound Eagles' signing of Michael Vick
• Belichick to NFL: I'm afraid the Death Star is fully operational

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